Chicago homeowners will be hit with higher property taxes again this year, but the increases won’t be nearly as steep as last year, according to calculations the Cook County clerk’s office released Wednesday.

The owner of a home in the city determined to be worth $224,500 will pay a bit more than $4,100 in total taxes this year — an increase of about $110, or 2.75 percent more than last year.

That same homeowner last year saw an increase of $363, which was a 10 percent hike. The rising tax bills in both years were primarily the result of Mayor Rahm Emanuel increasing property taxes to shore up pension funds for city workers and public school teachers.

Although city homeowners face less tax pain, commercial properties will be hit a bit harder. That’s partly the result of higher property tax exemptions for Cook County homeowners that Emanuel pushed through Springfield to soften the blow. Those changes shifted more of the overall tax burden to business properties, however.

The owner of a business property in Chicago valued at $224,500 will pay $12,082 in total taxes this year — an increase of about $840, or 7.5 percent more than last year.

In the Cook suburbs, where property tax rates are almost universally higher than they are in the city, homeowners could see bigger increases than their Chicago counterparts. Those rates, however, can vary significantly from one city or village to another. While Chicago residents frequently complain about their property tax bills, the tab tends to be higher in most towns in collar counties such as DuPage and Will.

In the north Cook suburbs, residential tax bills are up by about 3 percent, and in the south suburbs by about 4.8 percent, according to Clerk David Orr’s yearly overall assessment of suburban trends. Commercial property tax bills are up by 6.4 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.

This year, the owner of an average north suburban home valued at $299,100 will pay $7,331, or $213 more, Orr calculated. The bill on an average south suburban home valued at $187,500 will be $5,426, or $247 more than last year.

By comparison, the owner of a similarly valued north suburban business property will end up paying nearly $21,000 in taxes, or about $1,244 more, while south suburban business will pay more than $16,500, or about $1,254 extra.

Those increases will be reflected on the second installment of Cook property tax bills, which Treasurer Maria Pappas said would be mailed out early next month, with an Aug. 1 due date. The first-installment bills were due March 1.

The tax increases in the city are being driven by higher contributions to pension funds for city police and firefighters, as well as Chicago Public Schools teachers — a move designed to restore financial health to those significantly underfunded retirement accounts.

City Hall expects to collect $53 million more in property taxes this year for the police and fire pension funds. Emanuel, who is seeking re-election in 2019, is in the third year of a four-year property tax increase plan to boost contributions to those fund. A final $63 million increase is coming next year.

Once those tax hikes are phased in, the city will be paying $543 million more into those two funds than it was in 2015, before the City Council approved the mayor’s tax hike request.

CPS is upping its teacher pension fund payments by $154 million this year, Orr said. The increase was requested by Emanuel and authorized by the General Assembly, which also earmarked more state money for the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. It’s the second year of big property tax increases for CPS.

To soften the blow for homeowners, particularly those who live in less expensive homes, Emanuel and Assessor Joseph Berrios got the General Assembly to approve higher exemptions — which reduce the assessed value of a home for taxing purposes.

For homeowners who live in their property, the homestead exemption is rising to $10,000 from $7,000. Homeowners who are 65 or older also are eligible for an additional senior citizen homestead exemption, which is rising to $8,000 from $5,000.

Orr found that those changes are having a dramatic effect in some south suburbs, where many homes are worth less than in other parts of the Chicago area. As a result, thousands of additional properties are completely off the tax rolls, which shifts the burden to other homes and businesses that are still being taxed.

In many ways, Orr’s annual calculations are more of a guide to what could happen with tax bills, not what will happen. Each property is unique, so bills vary based on a number of factors.

Tax bills will be lower for homes deemed to be worth less and higher for homes with bigger price tags — as determined by the county assessor's office. And taxes also vary somewhat depending on what part of the city a homeowner lives in, as some neighborhoods have added property taxes for local improvements, security, mosquito abatement, home equity assurance or mental health treatment.

Tax bills can vary even more in suburban Cook, based largely on what individual school districts collect in property taxes. The tax rates — or the percentage of a home’s market value paid in taxes each year — also tend to be much higher in economically struggling south suburbs.

In his report, Orr also noted that total property tax collections for all of Cook County this year will total $14.4 billion. That’s a 5 percent increase over last year.